GB Plus Me Part 4: Next Generation
by Catietheawesome
Summary: Now, it's the kids' turn.
1. Mom's Happy Ending

**Don't worry, this _is_ a story about the kids. But first, the wedding!**

* * *

**Alice**  
June 2009

"Mom, you're absolutely breathtaking," I gushed as my mother stared in the mirror.

She smiled at me in my red bridesmaid gown. "I just hope I look half as pretty as you do."

I snorted. "Thanks for the sentiment, but today, you're the star attraction."

Mom turned back to the mirror. The long white gown with its long white sleeves was simple but elegant. Lately, Mom had taken to growing out her hair, so now it about shoulder length. I squeezed her arm. "Egon won't know what hit him," I whispered.

Suddenly, there was a jaunty knock on the door. "All clear in there?" called a voice from the other side sarcastically.

Mom rolled her eyes. "Come in, Venkman."

Dr. Peter Venkman opened the door, the rascally smirk he habitually wore accompanied by a dashing grey suit. He whistled at the sight of Mom. "Damn, blondie. I'd marry you myself if Dana hadn't gotten to me first."

"Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll legalize polygamy, Pete," Mom snorted. "So, what's on your mind?"

Peter chuckled. "You got a wedding present. Anybody order a redheaded bridesmaid, size small?"

"Huh?" Mom asked confusedly. Then a short woman with bobbed red hair and round black glasses walked in behind Peter with a huge grin on her face.

"Janine!" Mom gasped. She all but ran across the room to hug her. "You came!"

The redheaded woman laughed, hugging Mom back. She had sort of a Brooklyn nasal drawl. "Of course I did, silly."

Mom looked over at Peter. "Well, I guess you won't be able to be my bridesmaid anymore," she joked.

"Oh, darn!" Peter said, mock disappointedly. "I'll just have to settle for performing the service then."

Mom turned back to Janine. "We have a dress for you, don't worry. I just knew that you would come. I almost thought you weren't, though...because of...you know." Mom looked awkward, almost guilty, for some reason.

"Listen," said Janine, putting a hand on Mom's shoulder. "Yes, I did use to like Egon. But now I've got Louis, plus a son of my own. All I want is for Egon is his happiness. Now you go marry him and make him the happiest man in the world for me, okay?"

Mom laughed with relief and pulled her into another hug. "Janine, you're a wonder! Thank you."

Peter cleared his throat. "Well it sounds like you girls have some catching up to do, and I have to go get ready for my big speech, so I'm just gonna bow out." He stepped out of the room, winking at Mom.

Janine glanced over at me. "So this is your daughter?"

"Yes, this is Alice," Mom introduced. "Alice, this is Janine Tully, our old secretary and a very good friend of mine."

I smiled and shook Janine's hand. "It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Tully...wait, Tully?" The last name caught me off guard. I paused. "Did you say you have a son?"

Janine nodded. "His name is Dexter. He's about your age. Do you know him?"

"Oh, yeah. I know him." I groaned, thinking of the boy who I went to school with. Even though I was with Jeremy now, Dexter still fawned over me. He just couldn't take a hint. "He's not here today, is he?"

"Yes, he's out in the audience sitting with his father," Janine replied.

"Louis is here, too?" Mom asked excitedly.

"Yes. Here, I have something for you." Janine started digging through her purse. She pulled out a large gold coin, plastic by the look of it. "It's a souvenir from the World's Fair in Wishing Meadow in 1964. It's my lucky coin."

"Oh, thank you," said Mom, taking the coin from her.

Janine nodded. "I gave the other one to Egon right before he went off to fight off Gozer."

Mom froze. "Oh," she whispered. "Well, don't worry. I'll give it back later."

"Keep it," said Janine, holding up her hands. "I've been holding onto that thing for way too long."

I got the feeling that Janine didn't mean she'd been holding on to the coin for too long. Maybe somewhere deep down, Janine still had feelings for Egon. I guess she had held onto the coin as a way to stay connected to him. Mom seemed to sense that too.

"Besides," Janine continued with a grin, "I got a third one at home."

Mom laughed a little. "I guess this covers something old and borrowed."

"And your dress is new," I added.

"Now you just need something blue," Janine remarked.

"Already covered." Mom held up her right hand. Sitting on her ring finger was a gold ring with a blue topaz stone. "It was my grandmother's," Mom explained. "It was willed to me after my parents died."

"Something from the past to help you embark on the future," I mused.

Mom turned and looked in the mirror once more. "Now you're ready," Janine whispered.

Suddenly, Wagner's "Wedding March" kicked up from the front hall. "That's your cue!" Janine grinned. "Go get him!"

* * *

When I was little, I had asked Mom about her wedding with my father. According to her, they had performed the ceremony in a small chapel. Mom had worn a poofy, prom dress number with a tutu skirt and spaghetti straps. A priest had performed the service, Ray had been best man, and Egon had walked Mom down the aisle. And of course, Mom had married Alexander Wilcox. My father.

Today would be completely different. The ceremony was taking place in the front hall of the firehouse. Mom's gown was simple and grown up. Janine was Mom's other bridesmaid and Winston was the best man. I was maid of honor, Peter was marrying the happy couple, Ray would be Mom's escort, and you know the groom.

"The way it should have been," my mom had said, smiling blissfully.

I was glad Mom had found someone. Ever since she and Egon had gotten together, she'd had a sparkle in her eye that I'd never seen before. And plus, Egon was a pretty cool guy. Mom had been right when she'd said he wasn't a big talker, but he was so nice. And he was really sweet to my mom. He definitely wasn't a douchebag like I feared. When I'd met him, he hadn't seemed like a jerk, but you really never know...

"Ready?" I heard Ray whisper to Mom. We were upstairs, waiting to go down.

"Definitely," she whispered back.

Janine dashed in, adjusting her red gown, identical to mine. She had pulled it on and slapped on some makeup at light's speed. "Alright, now let's have us a wedding," she declared.

The music cued up below. Janine gracefully stepped out and descended the staircase. I gulped and followed her.

The guests looked up at me and smiled. All of us "Next Generation Ghostbusters", as the "Originals" referred to Jeremy, Eddie, Graham, and I, were here. Jeremy was sitting with his mom Dana, and his half brother, Oscar Wallance. Jeremy winked at me. I blushed.

Eddie was sitting next to Ray's new girlfriend, Elaine Ferman. According to Mom, Ray and Elaine had been childhood friends. Graham was sitting with his mother, Laura and twelve year-old sister, Kendra. Egon had no family, his mother Katherine had died long ago, so he had invited his four parapsychology students from the university; Kylie, Eduardo, Garrett, and Roland. And of course, Dexter was there too, with a man who looked just him, only older. It had to be Louis.

Mom had no guests. "Everyone I love is right here," she had said.

At the front, Egon was standing in between Peter and Winston. _Very pretty_, he mouthed to me. I smiled at him and took my place by Janine.

The music trilled, and the room grew quiet. Everyone turned their eyes to the two figures descending the stairs.

Ray looked proud as a peacock as he escorted the bride to the alter. Mom looked absolutely gorgeous in her long, simple white gown. I thought it was perfect for Egon-simple, formal, but still wonderful.

Mom and Egon locked eyes the second she walked in the room. Mom looked like she was about to cry and explode with happiness at the same time. Egon looked absolutely content. But his eyes were sparkling.

Egon's student Eduardo was smirking. He elbowed Kylie. "I called that," he whispered to her. Kylie rolled her eyes.

Once they had reached the altar, Ray released Mom's arm and took his place behind Egon. Egon took Mom's hands, and they turned to Peter, expectantly.

"Friends and family," Peter began, "we gather here today to celebrate the joining of this man and this woman. Today you celebrate one of life's greatest adventures and give recognition to the worth of love, as you join together in vows of marriage."

I just knew what everyone was thinking: _Ya done good, Venkman._ Don't give him too much recognition though. I think he got that off the Internet.

"Egon Romulus Spengler," Peter asked, "do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

Egon looked at Mom, who was raising an eyebrow. _Romulus?_ Mom mouthed, trying not to laugh.

Egon smirked. "I do."

Peter turned to Mom. "Jennifer Ruth Colby, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

Mom took a deep breath, then opened her mouth. "I-"

"_Ahahahahahaha!"_ A loud shriek issued from nowhere. "Huh?" I gasped.

Suddenly, a blue ghost streaked in, flying over all of our heads. Wind whipped around the room, scattering papers and stuff. Nobody screamed, because we were used to ghosts. But still, we were shocked.

"Peter! The packs!" Ray yelled. "C'mon, guys! Let's get it!"

Peter, Ray, Egon, Winston, and Mom leapt into action. They raced over to the Ectomobile and pulled out their proton packs. "Well, Jennifer," called Peter. "Ain't this always the way it goes?"

"Yeah," Mom shouted back. "Some spook comes in and crashes my wedding. Typical."

"Alice! Jeremy! Graham!" said Eddie. "Let's get our packs and-"

"No, wait," I cut him off. "Let them handle this one. One last bust."

The Ghostbusters geared up. "Alright, Winston," said Ray. "Go for it!"

Winston, being the only one with a clear shot at the phantom, fired. The ghost bounced out of the way, cackling like mad.

"Spengs!" Ray yelled.

Egon fired at the ghost. His stream latched around the ghost.

"You got it!" cheered Ray.

The ghost was struggling against Egon's stream. "Uh, it's slipping," Egon called worriedly.

"I got it!" Mom fired her wand at the specter. Together, she and Egon's streams held the ghost firm.

"Here comes the trap!" Peter called as he tossed it in. He stomped the pedal.

"Everybody shield your eyes!" Ray shouted. The guests looked away as the trap opened, and the ghost was sucked in.

Mom uncovered her eyes. She stared at the trap momentarily, then slowly turned to Egon and smiled. "Okay. _Now_ I'm ready to say my vows."


	2. All On Our Own

A few hours after the wedding, I was in the kitchen, just sitting around staring into space. Jeremy bounded in. "Hey. Whatcha doing?"

I smiled at him. "Just wondering what my mom and Dr. Spengler are doing right now."

"Gah!" He flinched playfully. "Didn't need that mental image, Alice."

I giggled a little. "You're so dumb, Jeremy Venkman."

He wrapped his arms around my waist. "Good thing I have a super smart girlfriend then, huh?"

I rolled my eyes and leaned in to kiss him, but suddenly, the alarm went off. "Darn," sighed Jeremy. "Just when things were getting good."

I laughed. "Let's go. We got ghosts to bust!" I grabbed his hand and pulled him into the front hall.

Winston and Ray was standing by the car. Ray was rubbing his hand over the hood. "Oh, Ecto," he moaned sadly. "I'm gonna miss you."

"It's okay, Dad," Eddie consoled. "It's not like we're gonna crash her."

Ray gave Eddie a doubtful look. "If you say so."

I chuckled. "You don't have to worry, Dr. Stantz. I'll keep him from exceeding the speed limit too much."

"Well, that makes me feel better," sighed Ray. "Alright. Well, Dr. Spengler and Dr. Colby are married now. You know what that means."

"Yeah!" exclaimed Eddie excitedly. "We're takin' over the bizz!"

Ever since the Armageddon incident two years, our parents had agreed to train us to be Ghostbusters. Now that we had graduated high school, we had more time to devote to our work. Our deadline to learn the tricks of the trade and officially become Ghostbusters had been Mom and Egon's wedding today. Now, we were veritable paranormal investigators and eliminators.

"Well let's get going," said Graham, loading up the last of the packs. "Can't be late to our first job, right?"

"That probably wouldn't be good for business," I agreed. "Let's go."

As we climbed into the car and were driving away, Ray yelled out, "And remember-"

I stuck my head out the window. "We know, Dr. Stantz! Don't cross the streams!"

The Ectomobile pulled away, screeching down the street. Ray shook his head. "I just hope we're doing the right thing."

Winston patted him on the shoulder. "Me too, man. Me too."

* * *

Over the next few weeks, our work was pretty hectic. "Ugh!" I harrumphed as I stomped into the kitchen. Jeremy, Eddie, and Graham were sitting around the table, looking as exhausted as I felt. "What?" asked Eddie.

"Edwin Tobin Stantz!" I exclaimed. "When in the hell are we going to get a secretary? I cannot be expected to take calls and go Ghostbusting! You said we'd get someone last week!"

Eddie's eyes bugged out, while Jeremy and Graham's mouths dropped open. I guess they weren't used to me flying off the handle like that. "Uh...she's actually on the way now," said Eddie slowly.

"Oh." I blushed. "Sorry."

"What's her name?" Jeremy asked.

Eddie shrugged. "Name's Sally Eckert. I think she's a hippie or something. When I told her we'd interview her, she said 'Groovy.'" He did quotation marks with his fingers.

"Well, let's go out so we can meet her," suggested Graham.

I nodded. "Good idea. I sure am glad I'm not going to be the only girl around here."

"What are you talking about? Eddie's here," Jeremy joked.

I rolled my eyes. "Come on."

The four of us walked into the front hall, where, serendipitously, a girl about our age was coming in. She had dark auburn hair that naturally grew in ringlets, and hazel eyes surrounded by long, thick eyelashes. Her blouse was long sleeved, weird for June, and flowy. She was also wearing old faded jeans and sandals.

"Hello," I said amiably. "Are you the new secretary?"

"That's me." Sally's voice was light and breezy, with sort of a sigh to it. I was expecting the words "peace" or "love" to come out any moment. Eddie had been right, she was definitely a hippie. "I'm Sally Genevieve Eckert, but you can call me Sally."

"Nice to meet you," I nodded. "I'm Alice Wilcox, and these are Jeremy Venkman, Graham Zeddemore, and Eddie Stantz."

"How's it going?" Jeremy asked.

"Nice to meet you," said Graham, shaking Sally's hand.

Sally looked expectantly at Eddie, who had been strangely quiet. He was usually so friendly. "Uh...hi," he finally said, very quietly.

Sally smiled at him, then turned back to me. "So, what do I have to do?"

"Just answer the phones and take message occasionally," I explained. "It's pretty simple-we do all the grunt work."

"Have there been any other applicants?" Sally asked.

"Not that I know of," I said.

"Yeah, nobody's crazy enough to take this job," muttered Jeremy.

"We're sort of desperate," I confessed, hoping that Sally hadn't heard that. Didn't want to scare off our only prospect. "It's been quite harrying around here, and I simply don't have time to catch ghosts, do my research, _and_ answer the phones."

"Well, I'm a pretty hard worker, and I just love people," said Sally. "Is the job mine?"

"Um..." I didn't know why, but I had this intuitive feeling to hire her...almost an urge. "Sure. The job's yours."

"Great! Guess I better get on those calls," said Sally cheerfully. She sat down at the secretarial desk. Almost immediately, the phone rang. "That was convenient," she chuckled as she picked up the receiver. "Ghostbusters, Incorporated...uh huh...got it. Thank you." She hung up and looked at us. "Spook sited at the city dump. You better hurry."

"On our way!" Jeremy grabbed my hand and we hurried over to our lockers to pull on our jumpsuits.

Graham started to follow, but noticed that Eddie was rooted to the spot, eyes glazed over. "Hey, man. You coming?"

Eddie shook his head slightly. "Uh...yeah, of course."

* * *

"Got it!" I exclaimed as I roped the spook. Eddie and I were surrounded by mountains of trash. Ah, New York. I just hoped we got a BIG check for this one.

"Here comes the trap!" Eddie called. He threw it in and stepped on the button. The Garbage Ghost was history.

"Well, there's another one for our files," I mused, staring at the now occupied trap. "Where are Jeremy and Graham?"

"Still looking for the ghost, I assu-" Eddie began to say, but was cut off by a distant outcry of pain. I gasped, recognizing the voice. "Jeremy!"

We hurried toward the sound. Beyond one of the litter mounds, Graham was kneeling on the ground...next to Jeremy!

"Oh my God!" I cried, rushing over to him. He held up a hand, stopping me. "Don't. It's not pretty."

"Oh, horse feathers!" I rolled my eyes. "What could it possibly-oh. Oh my."

Jeremy's left shin was matted with blood, and I could even see a little shard of white bone sticking out. "Good God...how did that happen?" I asked shakily.

"I don't know. All I know is that something's flyin' out at us one second, and the next, bam! He's on the ground!" Graham recapped.

"It was a demon dog or some shit like that!" Jeremy irritably spurted. "I'd have screamed sooner, but the pain knocked me freakin' unconscious!"

"What kind of demon-" Eddie began to say, but I cut in. "Uh, Ed, hate to discourage your inquisitive nature, but Jeremy's left tibia has obviously been brutally ruptured. We need to get him to a hospital stat."

"Glad one of you brainiacs is thinkin' straight," grumbled Jeremy.


	3. Hello, Dexter

**Eddie**

Jeremy opened his eyes sluggishly. "Ah, my head," he groaned.

"I figured it would have been your leg," I said.

Jeremy winced. "Thanks, Ed. I'd forgotten the pain in my leg until you brought it up."

Alice smiled and took Jeremy's hand in her own. "Yep, he's gonna be fine."

Jeremy was all laid up in a hospital bed, his leg in traction. The doctor had said that Jeremy would be able to leave the hospital for at least five days, back on his feet for two weeks, and Ghostbusting when he was out of his cast-which would take a whole month at least.

Poor Jeremy not only had a severely broken leg, but also a fractured rib, a billion bruises, and a pretty big goose egg on his noggin beside. I could imagine that he was in pain. That "demon dog" had definitely done some damage.

When we told him what the doctor had said, Jeremy had pretty much gone ape shit, as he would have put it. "What! You mean I gotta-" He paused, looking at his girlfriend. "Cover your ears, Alice."

Alice obliged, and Jeremy continued into his rant. "I gotta stay in this shit hole for five days? No freaking way! I need to get back out there and track down that hellhound that landed me into this mother in the first place! I'm gettin' out right now and no Goddamn doctor's gonna stop me-"

"But we will," Graham spoke up quickly. "Me and Eddie aren't letting you out of this bed, not even to take a crap. And that's final."

Jeremy snorted. "You two can't stop me either."

_Geez, pain meds much?_ I thought to myself. But to have said that would have been to eat flaming terror at the hands of Jeremy Venkman.

"How about me?" said Alice, taking her hands away from her ears. "Would you stay in for your concerned girlfriend who only wants you to get better?"

"Aw, come on!" whined Jeremy. "Playing the girlfriend card isn't fair!"

"Jeremy," pleaded Alice. "It's only five days. Five days, and then you'll be back at the firehouse. Just stay here and rest. For me. Please?"

Jeremy huffed. "Damn it, you know I can't say no to you...fine. I'll be a good boy and do everything the nice doctor tells me, okay?"

"Thank you," said Alice, giving him a swift peck on the lips.

"Just one problem," I pointed out. "I don't think we'd be able to handle all our calls with just three on the job."

"Good point," agreed Graham. "But who do we get to replace Jeremy?"

"_Replace_?" Jeremy exclaimed indignantly.

"Uh, not replace," Graham amended quickly. "Just, uh, take over your work while you're out of commission."

"Like a temporary," I added.

"We could never and would never replace you," Alice consoled.

"Alright," said Jeremy, simmering back down. "Just watch the r-word. So, who do we get for the temp?"

"Well at the wedding," I said, "this guy approached me and said he'd like to be on the team. Seemed nice enough, looked pretty smart too."

"What's the name?" asked Graham.

"It was Dexter or some-"

"Dexter? Dexter _Tully_?" Alice asked. "Oh no! No way in hell, Eddie! Forget it!"

"Why is everyone yelling at me today?" I asked. "And what's the problem with this Dexter guy?"

"The problem is," Alice grumbled, "that the guy just can't leave me alone! I thought I'd seen the last of him at graduation. Then he showed up at the wedding. But there's no way that I could ever possibly work with Dexter Tully! Uh-uh, no way!"

"Who's Dexter Tully?" asked Graham.

"Yeah. And what does he have to do Alice?" Jeremy added, a little disgruntled.

"He's this guy we used to go to school with," explained Alice. "He, uh, likes me."

"What's he look like?" Jeremy pounded his fist against his hand menacingly.

"Oh, don't get all jealous." Alice rolled her eyes. "He's a complete dork."

"Sounds like your type," Jeremy muttered.

"Look, despite Dexter and Alice's, uh, awkward history," I cut in, "we do need a temp, and we've got a willing guy. What do you say? Is he in?"

Graham shrugged. "Sure."

"He just better stay away from my girl," grumbled Jeremy.

I looked at Alice expectantly. She looked pained, but nodded. "I guess."

"Okay. I'll call him up now."

* * *

The next day at the firehouse, Dexter Tully stood in front of us with a goofy grin on face, which exposed his shiny braces. His green pants were hitched up to his belly button, and they definitely did not match the yellow-and-blue checkered shirt was wearing. His glasses were thick, square, and black. "Thanks for hiring me, guys. It's great to have friends like you."

"Uh...right," I said. "Well, it's good to have you on the team, Dexter. This is Sally," I gestured to our secretary, "and I assume you know everyone else."

"Yup, I do." He looked at Alice, whose arms were crossed and was looking off into space disinterestedly. "Hi, Alice," said Dexter, trying to sound smooth, but failed miserably.

"Hi," muttered Alice, not looking Dexter in the eye.

"Well, Dex, let me show you the equipment," said Graham. He and our new recruit headed down into the basement.

"I think Jeremy could use some company right about now." Alice walked out of the front door.

The door closed behind her and I realized it was just me and Sally left in the room. I gulped, feeling my face get hot. Sally smiled at me. "What's the matter, Eddie? You look funny."

"Oh! Uh...it's just that...it's kinda warm in here," I said uncomfortably. I didn't know why, but I felt really nervous around Sally. I think it was those mystic hazel eyes of hers. They made me dizzy.

"I'm not hot," said Sally. I studied her long sleeves. Sure they were made of light material. But it still was June in New York.

"I guess I-I just have hot blood," I stuttered, immediately wishing I could take it back. "Uh, I mean-"

"That you have a warm heart?" Sally guessed.

"Uh, yeah. That's it." I'm sure my face was getting redder and redder by the minute.

Sally got up from her secretarial desk. "You know, I know a very surefire way to cool off."

I gulped. "What's that?"

She grinned and walked around the back of me. Suddenly, I felt my jacket being pulled at. "For starters, you could take this off," she suggested into my ear. She handed me my jacket back and sat back down.

I laughed a little. "Oh. Thanks. That does help."

She laughed too. "Not a problem." Then the phone rang and Sally reached to pick it up. "Hello, Ghostbusters," she answered. She threw me a wink.

I smiled back at her, and felt my stomach flip.

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion downstairs. Sally and I locked eyes, worried. I took off for the basement.

I opened the door, and a big puff of smoke came out. I coughed and covered my face as I stumbled down into the room.

Graham was sitting on the floor, looking thunderstruck. Dexter was standing next to him, wearing a proton pack. Graham looked up at me. "He was just...trying it on," he said dazedly.

I looked at Dexter. He gave me an embarrassed look. "Whoopsie."

Maybe Alice was right after all.


	4. The Doohickey

**Sorry guys, but there's a lot of technobabble in this chapter. I still liked writing it though. You guys get to see how smart Eddie and Alice are.**

* * *

**Alice**

"Mom, are sure you're okay?" I asked concernedly.

I heard Mom sniffle a little into the phone. "It's only a cold. You and Egon worry about me way too much."

"Only because you don't worry about yourself enough," I retorted. "Are you sure nothing's wrong?"

"I'm fine," laughed Mom. "Except..."

"What?"

There was a pause. "Oh, it's nothing. It's just...I've just been feeling a little run down lately. Egon keeps saying I should see a doctor."

"I guess he is overreacting a little," I admitted. "You have to remember though, he's madly in love with you after all."

"I know." I could hear Mom's smile over the phone. "I'm always going to be grateful for him. And for you. I love you, Alice."

"Love you too, Mom. Bye." I hung up the phone.

"What was that all about?" Jeremy spoke up from his couch bed. The doctor had released him from the hospital. He still wasn't allowed to get up, except for bathroom breaks. But at least he was home.

"I'm just worried about my mom. That's all," I replied, turning to him.

"You worry too much. You're just like your stepfather," Jeremy said.

I chuckled a little. "Funny. That's what Mom just said."

"Yeah, well," Jeremy shrugged. "Great minds..."

At that moment, Eddie and Graham walked in. "Oh, good. You guys are up here," said Eddie.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Where else would I be?"

Eddie ignored him. "Alice, you want to tell them about our new invention?"

"Sounds good to me." I walked over to our lab space. There was a large something hidden under a sheet. The others had been asking Eddie and I what was under it all week, but we had kept our lips zipped. Now that we had it working, it was time for the unveiling of our project. I pulled the tarp off of the machine with a flourish. "Ta da!" I exclaimed.

It was basically a large metal hoop, about eight feet in diameter. It was hooked up to some wires and stuff. It strongly resembled the Stargate. "Uh...what is it?" Graham asked.

Jeremy rolled his eyes. "You mean you can't figure it out?"

I looked at him curiously. "You know what it is?"

"Of course I do. It's obviously a back scratcher." Jeremy smirked.

"Close, but no." I shot back. "This is called the neuron splitter."

Graham shuddered. "No, thanks. I like my neurons whole if you don't mind."

"What it does," I explained, "is disperses your molecular chemistry and allows one to cross interdimensional boundaries."

Jeremy thought for a second. "So...it's a teleporter?"

"Well sure, if you wanna dumb it down," muttered Eddie.

"But it doesn't teleport one to a different location on the physical earth," I added. "Its purpose is to allow one to travel to different dimensions."

"I don't get it," said Graham. "Exactly how many dimensions are there?"

"I got this one," said Jeremy. "When you watch a movie, there's regular old 2D, then there's 3D when crap flies out at you, then there's really cool 4D, when you get sprayed in the face with water too!"

"Jeremy! That's not it at all!" I exclaimed. "Look Graham, there are an infinite number of dimensions in the universe. Today, we've only discovered six of them."

"Wait. I thought a dimension was a universe," said Graham.

"That's a common misconception," Eddie replied. "There's only one universe, and all the different dimensions make it up. Hence the prefix _uni_."

"The first dimension is the least complex," I explained. "It represents the concept of existing, or physicality. I guess the best way to explain is a straight line."

"Okay..." said Graham.

I took a breath. "The second is detail, the concept being _something_. The line is squared and becomes, well, a square."

"The next is the third," Eddie continued. "The dimension of interaction. Basically, all the little squares combine to form the great cube that is our universe."

"That's the dimension in which all life as we know it resides," I added.

"I see. It's a little like geometry," nodded Graham.

"I hated geometry," said Jeremy. "Well, what about the fourth?"

"The fourth is referred to simply as 'time'," I said. "The concept that all the little squares combine in infinitely different ways to form our cube, or universe."

"The fifth is a little different," Eddie said. "It has nothing to do with physicality. The fifth dimension is known as "psyche" (sigh-key, not sike). It's the dimension of everything non-material, like thought, or emotion."

"Or memory," I added. "And finally, there's the sixth."

"What's that one?" asked Jeremy apprehensively.

"The sixth dimension is the realm where the spirits of the dead go. It deals with the metaphysical. It's referred to as Heaven, Hell, the Underworld, the Great Beyond, Elysium...basically," I straightened my glasses, "it's the ghost dimension."

"Yeesh," Jeremy shuddered. "And this doohickey is gonna take us there?"

"Only if there was ever a need to go," said Eddie. "It would be extremely dangerous for anyone to ever go to the sixth dimension. They would literally have to be dead."

"Well, that's incredible," said Graham.

"No," I disagreed, eyeing the neuron splitter uneasily. "It's terrifying."

"Wait. You invented this thing and you're afraid of it?" Jeremy asked me incredulously.

"You ever see _Jurassic Park_?" I said.

"Yeah, and I haven't given a crap about dinosaurs since. Why?"

"You remember how they lost control of the dinosaurs and almost died because of this incredible power that they generated?" I said, trying to stress the importance of the neuron splitter's security. "If we ever lost control of this machine...well, a tyrannosaur would be about as harmful as a hamster compared to the results. It's not the machine that scares me, Jeremy. It's the not knowing what could happen. The unknown."

We all stood (or sat, in Jeremy's case) around, staring at each other. A chill had come over the room.

* * *

**Don't worry, my next chapter will have more action, I promise.**


	5. Girl Advice

**Sorry it took me so long to post this chapter. My teachers have been piling on the end-of-the-year homework, AND I had writer's block. Anyway, here it is!**

* * *

**Jeremy**

"I already said no!" Graham stomped into the kitchen, followed closely by his little sister Kendra. She was already small, but next to her giant brother, she looked tiny.

"But why not? I can help!" Kendra pleaded. "Just teach me how to catch ghosts! Please?"

"It's too dangerous," said Graham firmly. "And Dad and Mama would never let you."

"But-"

"Kendra, no," Graham cut her off. "Now you go on home. Mama'll want your help with supper."

Kendra dejectedly turned toward the door. "Hey, Jeremy," she said sadly as she walked out.

I watched her leave, then looked at Graham. "You wanna tell me what the hell that was about?"

"She wants to be a Ghostbuster," Graham sighed. "She's not even in high school yet. Does she really think I'd put her in danger like that?"

I shrugged. "Maybe she _could_ help. You never know."

Graham gave me a look. "You saying I need to train my _twelve year-old_ baby sister to catch ghosts?"

"No. Maybe you could tell her you'll train her when she's older," I suggested. "That way, she's satisfied and you get her off your back."

Graham sighed. "I just don't know."

Eddie walked in at that moment. I noticed his cheeks were strangely red. "Hey man. What's up?" I asked.

"Oh, uh, nothing," Eddie replied as he looked down the the stairs distractedly.

I rolled my eyes. "You were trying to talk to Sally again, weren't you?"

Eddie's blush got stronger. "Uh, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Just ask her out already," said Graham. "I don't think she'd say no."

"But I..." Eddie looked down at the floor bashfully. "...don't know how to."

"Yeah, obviously," I snorted. "Look, here's what you do. You go up to her, you start talking about some crap she's into. Girls love to talk about themselves, and they go crazy for guys who'll listen. Just make sure you slip in a few well placed complements."

Eddie raised an eyebrow. "Did that work with Alice?"

"Alice is a special case," I explained. "She isn't much of a talker, which is actually pretty rare for a chick. But anyway, after you and Sally have a good conversation going, you move in. It's that simple."

"But I don't even know what to talk about with her," said Eddie.

"That's why you ask her what's she interested in," I said. "Gives off the idea you're want to know what she has to say."

"I _am_ interested," insisted Eddie.

"Well yeah, and I'm interested in what Alice says too. She's pretty cool. But if Sally's the boring stupid type, well..." my voice trailed off. "You're gonna have to do a bit of acting. I've had girlfriends before and believe me, it's all about them. Alice is the only one I've ever met who's not completely wrapped up in her own crap."

"She's a keeper, that's for sure," agreed Graham.

"Hey, Jer," said Eddie. "When did you first start liking Alice anyway?"

I thought back to that fateful day two years ago, the day I met Alice Wilcox for the first time. It was the day that my life changed forever."I guess when I realized she was different from other girls. Back in high school, girls only wanted to date me because I was on the football team."

"And because they thought you were hot," added Graham.

"That too. And that was usually the reason I wanted to date them, if they were pretty or not. Man, I used to be such a prick. But one day, I met this girl. She wasn't as glamorous as those other bimbos. She was dorky and awkward and shy. But she was also sweet and smart and not stuck up. I guess I just got intrigued."

"Do you love her?"

I froze. Eddie's question had caught me off guard. "Gee, Ed. I don't really know."

Eddie looked at me sideways. "You mean you've been going out with her for two years now and you're not sure yet?"

I thought for a second. I knew I was pretty crazy about my genius girlfriend. She scared the hell out of me too. She was funny and cute, even though she denied it. I liked her a lot. But...love?

"I guess I don't," I finally said.

Suddenly, Alice trudged into the room. "Yeesh. You look like hell," I said.

Alice glared at me. "Not today, Venkman."

"Uh-oh," said Graham. "What happened?"

"What didn't happen?" Alice threw her arms up in the air. "That idiot we just _had_ to hire completely wrecked the house we were at!"

"We still got paid, right?" I said.

Alice ignored me. "And to top it all off, he accidentally released the ghost on the way back! Can't we hire someone else?" She looked at me. "How about Oscar?"

"Oh no," I said sneeringly. "Precious Oscar is too busy being a stupid _violinist_ to bust ghosts. He's such a snot-nosed punk."

"Geez, sibling rivalry much?" I heard Eddie mutter to Graham.

Alice sighed as she flopped down next to me on the couch. "Anybody would be better than Dexter. He's so incompetent."

"Just give him some time, Allie," said Eddie. "Master throw skill isn't something you achieve overnight."

"I guess," grumbled Alice. I wrapped my arm around her shoulders comfortingly. She smiled at me and scooted a little closer. "Sorry I've been so irritable lately, guys," she said. "It's just this whole thing with Dexter makes me feel awkward, and now my mom isn't feeling well..."

"What's up with your mom?" said Graham.

Alice shook her head. "I don't know. She says it's just a cold, but if it was then why would Egon be so worried?"

"He's probably just being overprotective," I said.

"Maybe...it's just that my mom's...well, she not exactly a spring chicken," admitted Alice. "I mean, she is forty six, after all."

"Maybe she's...having the change of life?" I suggested.

Alice rolled her eyes. "She's not _quite_ that old, Jeremy. I'm probably just freaking out over nothing."

"Everything's gonna be okay, Alice," said Graham. "You'll see."

I heard loud, slappy footsteps as Dexter walked in. "Hi, guysh. Howsh it going?" he lisped through his atrocious headgear.

"Oh hey, Dex," I said. I tried to be nice to the guy since I kinda felt sorry for him. "Alice was just telling about the job you and her did." I gave Alice a wink.

Dexter puffed out his chest. "Did she tell you how I caught the ghost? I really think I'm getting the hang of thish Ghostbusting businesh."

Alice rolled her eyes.

* * *

**Third Person**

In a dark alley, a secret meeting was transpiring between master and servant.

"You are doing good work. I am proud of you," hissed the master. He was large, and wore a tattered grey shroud, shielding out sunlight. He hated sunlight. Not that there was any sun where he was imprisoned.

He was not physically there, of course. Those damn adolescent phantom warriors had trapped him in his own domain. The only link to the outside world he had now was his minion.

The servant was in a kneeling stance at her master's feet. "Thank you, my liege," she replied in her flute-like voice. "I live only to serve."

The master's concealed hands, if he had any such appendages, suddenly flew up to the place where his temples should have been located. It was as if he had a sudden headache.

"My master is not well?" asked the servant concernedly.

The master shook his head. "It is nothing," he rasped. "A mere annoyance. I cannot broadcast much longer. Quickly, tell me of your progress. Are you hindering my enemies as I have employed you?"

The servant nodded. "My hound has already wounded the orange one. He will not be bothering anyone for quite sometime."

"Good. And what of the others?"

"I have not..." the servant faltered. She feared displeasing her master. "...gotten to the others as of yet, my liege."

"_What?_" The servant winced at the master's rage. "Do you not understand what they have done to me? I have been locked in my own palace. I am nothing more than an animal in a cage! I warn you, youngling: if you fail to do my bidding, I can and will entrap you here with me. I still have the power to do that."

"Please, my lord," whispered the servant. "It takes time. Sabotage must be performed subtly. You will be avenged, I swear it."

"You are not forgetting whose orders you carry out, are you? You are not becoming emotionally attached to these hellions?" growled the master.

"Of course not, my lord," said the servant. "I serve only your divine counsel."

"You lie," accused the master. "There is one who is special to you, is he not? Do not lie to me, child, I see it in your mind!"

The servant laughed cruelly. "That one is foolish, naive. I plan only to use him for my purpose...your redeeming. He is of no importance to me. I serve only you, my master."

"Good. Don't forget it." The master disappeared, leaving the servant to shiver in his wake.


	6. Graham's Secret

**Graham**

"Damn, that leg looks pale," said Jeremy staring at his newly unsheathed appendage. "You sure it's all right?"

Jeremy's leg was not only pale, but wrinkled and shriveled up. Me and Alice were sitting in the hospital with him. Jeremy had just gotten his preliminary cast taken off.

"Don't worry, Jeremy," said Alice. "That's how it's supposed to look. While your leg was in the cast, it retained fluid. Plus, it hasn't been in the sun and the muscles hasn't been normally exercised either."

Dr. Malone chuckled. "Guess my job's taken care of."

"That's our Alice," I said, clapping her on the back.

"Now, remember," said the doctor, turning to Jeremy. "This is a _walking_ cast. You can walk on your own, but not excessively. And absolutely _no_ Ghostbusting."

"Geez, Doc, you're killing me," groaned Jeremy.

"How long will it be before he's back at work?" asked Alice. What she really meant was, _how long will be before we can fire Dexter?_

"I'd estimate fours weeks at most," replied the doctor. "Two if he stays off his feet completely."

"Sounds good," I said. "Thanks, Dr. Malone."

The nurse walked in with a wheelchair. We helped Jeremy into it so Jeremy could get his new cast on. "If I ever see that terror dog again, I'll euthanize it," grumbled Jeremy as the nurse began to push him down the hall. "You guys been able to track that thing down yet?"

"Not yet," said Alice, straightening her glasses. "All we have to go by is an EMF measurement. But from what I can tell, this isn't just some run-of-the-mill phantasm."

"What do you mean? What's the norm for ghosts?" I asked.

"Usually the kind of ghosts we encounter range from Class Two to Five, with the occasional Class One. But according to my scans, Jeremy's terror dog ranks Class Six," explained Alice uneasily.

"But what does that mean?" asked Jeremy.

"According to the OGB archives, our parents only ever encountered two Class Sixes, known as 'Zuul' and 'Vinz Clortho', or 'the Gatekeeper' and 'the Keymaster'. They were working together for some bigger primal force named Gozer. She was a Class Seven."

"_She_?" asked Jeremy incredulously. "This ghost was a chick?"

Alice narrowed her eyes slightly. "Don't make me break your other leg."

"Sorry."

"So what you're saying is," I said slowly, sussing out Alice's information, "that this terror dog might be working for someone else?"

Alice nodded. "Exactly."

"But who?" I asked.

"That's what we don't know."

* * *

An hour later, we arrived back at the firehouse, Jeremy hobbling around on crutches. As soon we walked in, Sally looked up. "Oh good, you're here," she said airily. "We just got a call about a poltergeist haunting the Natural History Museum."

"Great," said Alice. "Me and Graham can handle this. Jeremy, you go upstairs."

Jeremy sighed as he looked at the stairs. "I really wish we had an elevator."

"Um, are you sure we both have to go on this one?" I asked nervously.

Alice gave me a funny look. "Of course, Graham. It takes two to catch a ghost. You know that."

"Oh, right," I said quickly. "I...I just thought I'd stick around here. You know, if there were any other calls."

"Oh. Well, come on. Let's get going." Alice turned and strode over to her locker. She reached in and pulled out her coveralls. I followed suit.

I had lied. I didn't really want to stay at the firehouse in case of another call coming in. The truth was...I was afraid of ghosts. There, I said it.

I know it's stupid, a Ghostbuster being scared of ghosts, right? Well, you try watching your best buddy get torn to pieces by one and see if they don't end up scaring the shit out of you.

As we drove through town to the museum, Alice kept giving me side looks. She knew something was up. I tried to look as casual as possible.

When we pulled up to the museum, a small crowd had gathered to watch the famous Ghostbusters tackle another bugaboo. A short man in a suit came running out. "Thank goodness you're here!" he squealed. "That...that _thing_ completely destroyed the Egyptian wing!"

"No need to worry, sir," said Alice. "We're professionals."

The two of us tromped up the steps. "Okay, let's check out that Egyptian exhibit first," said Alice. We walked inside and Alice walked off in the direction of what I supposed was the Egypt area. "I know my way around here," she admitted with a shrug.

"Yeah, I figured," I said, following her.

Just as the curator outside had said, the Egyptian room was absolutely wrecked. Alice immediately whipped out her PKE meter and swept the room. "Definitely a Class Two: poltergeist," she muttered.

"Look, what's the difference between a regular ghost and a poltergeist?" I asked her.

"Poltergeists are the class clowns of the spectral world, always pulling pranks and such," explained Alice. "Plus, they're invisible so they're harder to detain."

"Great. And how the hell do we catch a ghost we can't see?"

"Here." Alice reached into the side pouch of her uniform and pulled out what looked like binoculars that you could strap to your face. "They're ecto goggles. They'll allow you to see any hidden entities in the room."

She tossed them over to me and pulled out another pair for herself. I switched mine on and placed them on my face. I felt like I was going snorkeling.

Suddenly, I heard a tinkle behind me. I whirled around to see that a small vase had fallen onto the ground and broken. "Something's here," said Alice as her PKE meter chirped ominously.

I gulped and gripped the neutrona wand on my pack.

Just then, a ghost came swooping out of the wall, screeching at the two of us. I froze in terror, staring at it.

"Graham! Zap it!" shrieked Alice.

I heard her yell, but I couldn't move. I just couldn't.

"Graham! Now!"

I shook myself out of my stupor and fumbled for my stick, but I was too late. The ghost flew out the room and down the hall.

"After it!" Alice took off after the specter, shooting at the ghost with her pack the whole time. I followed after her, heart pumping.

About midway down the hall, Alice's stream finally snatched the ghost. I grabbed the trap off my belt and threw it out in the middle of the room. I stomped on the button. The trap opened and the poltergeist, with one last shriek, was pulled in.

Alice let out a breath and picked up the trap. "We got it."

I nodded, trying to catch my breath.

Alice pushed a lock of hair out of her face and stared at me. "What happened back there?"

"I..." I panted. "...don't know...what you mean."

"When I told you to shoot the ghost, you just froze," she said, trying to figure out the situation. "And back at the firehouse, you didn't want to come. Is there something wrong?"

"No. No, there's not."

She looked at me doubtfully. "Graham...are you sure? You can tell me, you know," she said tenderly.

I sighed. Then I sat down on the floor. "Alright...I'm afraid of ghosts."

Alice's eyebrows raised a bit. "You mean you have ectophobia?"

"Yeah, I guess I do. Pretty pathetic, huh?" I said sullenly. "A Ghostbuster scared of ghosts?"

Alice shook her head. "No, it's not stupid. I...can understand."

I was silent.

Alice hesitated, then bent down beside me. "I won't tell anyone, Graham. I swear."

I looked up. "I know."

* * *

**Eddie**

As me and Dexter walked out of the office building where we'd just caught a couple of wraiths, the Ectomobile pulled up. I opened the door to find Alice and Graham sitting in the front seat. "Hey," I said. "How'd you know we were here?"

"Sally," said Alice with a shrug. "We figured you two'd need a ride. We caught a poltergeist over at the Natural History Museum."

"Oh great," I sighed. "Because we have such a great track record with museums."

"Don't worry," Alice reassured me. "Nothing got destroyed too badly this time, save for some priceless ancient Egyptian relics."

"Oh, well if that's all..." My voice trailed off. "How's Jeremy?"

"He's fine," said Alice. "The doctor he'll back on his feet in less than a month."

"Good, we need him. The more hands on deck, the better."

We drove home. As we walked in the front door of the firehouse, Sally looked up from her desk. "Oh, good, you guys are back. How'd it go?"

"Not bad," I said, heading over to her desk. "Three whole ghosts. All in a day's work."

Sally laughed. "Well done, superhero."

At that moment, my PKE meter chirped unexpectedly. "What the?" I muttered as I studied it. "This thing must be on the fritz."

"What is it?" asked Sally.

I shook my head. "My meter says there's a Class Six in here, but that couldn't possibly be right. I probably just need to reconfigure the circuitry."

"Yeah, it's probably just a glitch," agreed Sally.

I switched off the meter and started to walk out. But before I walked into the basement, I paused and turn back around. "Uh...Sally?"

"Yes?" said the secretary, looking up.

I gulped, my heart rate beginning to pick up. "Would you maybe wanna...see a movie sometime? With me?"

Sally smiled. "Yeah. I'd like that a lot."

I smiled too. Glad I had gotten that out of the way.


	7. Servant Revealed

**Sorry about not posting in forever, but I had NO COMPUTER ACCESS where I've been lately. I almost died! But don't worry, I think this chapter will make up for the wait. I know I had fun writing it. *Grins evilly.***

* * *

**Graham**

I was sitting upstairs eating Cheez-Its and thinking. I knew that Alice wouldn't tell anyone about my secret. Still, I was uneasy. What if someone else found out?

The sound of squeaking shoes coming up the stairs shook me out of my train of thought. Dexter Tully came up the stairs, grinning like an idiot as usual. "Hey, Greg!" he exclaimed.

"Uh, it's Graham," I corrected. We'd been working together for weeks now, and the guy still couldn't remember my name.

Dexter didn't appear to have heard me as his attention switched over to Alice and Eddie's neuron splitter. "Ooh, what's that?"

I looked over at the big machine and shrugged. "I don't really know."

Dexter strode over to it and bent down to inspect the keypad located on the side of the device. "Gee. What's this do?" He extended his hand, as if to touch the shiny controls.

"Uh, Dex, I'm not sure you should-" I began to say, but he didn't listen as his long spindly index finger pushed the key marked "6."

"Six? Six what?" Dexter muttered.

I gulped, knowing exactly what six meant. The sixth dimension...Ghostworld.

A low humming issued from the splitter as the machine warmed up. The inside of the hoop lit up with a swirl of color, like one of those hypnotism apparatuses you see in corny movies.

Dexter stared engrossedly at the rainbow spiral. "Wicked," he whispered dazedly.

Suddenly, I heard a growling behind me...an all too familiar growl. I slowly turned around.

There it was, crouching on the floor, preparing for the attack. It was growling and snarling at me, drool dripping from its mouth.

The terror dog.

My heart started thumping. I gulped and starting frantically tapping Dexter, who was still staring at the machine and hadn't noticed the monster, on the shoulder. "D-d-dex-t-ter," I stuttered.

Dexter's head snapped up and he turned to me blankly. "What?"

I pointed to the beast. Dexter's eyes followed my finger and locked into the terror dog. He was paralyzed with fear for one second, then began to scream in a very high pitch.

At the sudden noise, the dog roared ferociously and took off, right in our direction.

So, Dexter and I did the natural thing and started running for our lives. Unfortunately, we ran right into the neuron splitter's spinning aura.

And the two of us were teleported into the sixth dimension.

* * *

**Third Person**

The servant entered the room, smiling wickedly. She marched across the room and hit a button on the keypad. The machine immediately shut off, erasing any evidence of its use. The servant patted the demonic pooch on the head. "Good work, Cerberus," she whispered lovingly to her hound.

Suddenly, the servant's keen ears picked up hurried footsteps clambering up the staircase. She gasped and hissed at the dog, "Go! Now!"

The beast disappeared in a puff of smoke as Eddie Stantz entered the room, out of breath. He had apparently run up the stairs. The servant smiled sweetly at him as he came in in a frenzied state.

He panted as he looked at the servant. "Sally? Wha-what happened? I...heard screaming...was...that you?"

The servant looked at him, feigning concern. "No, it wasn't me."

Eddie looked around the room confusedly, as if expecting to see someone else. But it was only he and the girl posing as the secretary. Suddenly he was distracted as the PKE meter he was still clutching in his hand went off. He stared at it confusedly. "There it goes again," he said, stepping closer to the servant. "That's so weird, I just calibrated this thing and everythi-" He stopped short as he looked up at the servant suspiciously. He took another step toward her. "Wait a second..."

The servant stared at him innocently. "What is it, Eddie?"

Eddie's gaze darted back and forth between the servant and his wildly buzzing PKE meter. His sharp mind realized that their secretary, his crush, was not all that she seemed. He gasped. "You're not Sally at all, are you?"

The servant's eyes widened. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"You possessed Sally, haven't you?" Eddie accused.

The servant remained cool on the outside, but internally, she was panicking. She'd been discovered! Her master would be most displeased.

Suddenly, some feminine feeling inside her stirred. Perhaps she wasn't completely without options, she mused. This was, after all, a foolish smitten little boy. So easy to manipulate.

The servant smiled alluringly and batted her eyelashes. "You're going to tell anyone, are you, Eddie? I'm harmless. You can trust me," she purred.

Eddie blinked confusedly. He certainly had not been expecting this seductive response. "I...I'm not sure what I'm going to do...yet," he said, trying to redeem his forceful carriage.

The servant took a few steps toward him. "You know, Edwin," she said, pronouncing his full name playfully. "I can't deny that I feel sort of..._attracted_...to you," she breathed,

Eddie's head whirled and his cheeks flushed bright red as the girl loomed closer to him. "I...I..." he stuttered, unable to utter whole words.

The servant's flirtatious smile twisted into a aggressive leer as she grabbed him by the collar and dragged his face right up to her own. She silenced his pathetic babbling by pressing her lips against his own.

Eddie froze, perplexed and extremely aroused by the whole experience. All thought flew from his brain as his mouth moved in response to hers. He was definitely not control here. His hands itched to crawl to her waist and run themselves all over her. But he resisted.

The kiss lasted about five seconds before Sally slowly pulled away, smiling lasciviously. "You won't tell anyone, will you," she whispered seductively.

It wasn't a question, Eddie realized. It was a command. And he knew he had to obey. She ruled him. He nodded nervously.

The alluring smile morphed into a smirk. "Good," she hissed as she released his shirt. She shot him one last wink and flounced out the door.

Eddie stood there for a few seconds, stumped. He was torn. Should he pursue this succubus, or do something to exorcise the demon from the extremely beautiful secretary?

He sighed. He knew what he had to do.


	8. Where'd They Go?

**Alice**

It had been a couple of days since Jeremy got his walking cast and Graham confided his secret fear to me. Everything seemed all right. Except for the fact that Jeremy was getting more and more irritable about not being able to work. And that Eddie was a nervous wreck for some reason, jumping at every sound and always throwing Sally funny looks. And I hadn't seen Graham or Dexter in days...okay, everything was not alright.

Especially not Mom. She'd finally agreed to go to the doctor when she had thrown up one morning. As much as I wanted to believe that she just had the flu or something, some instinct was telling me that something was very, _very_ wrong with her. And Egon didn't seem much better. The two of them looked like that hadn't slept in weeks.

Maybe I was just fretting over nothing.

I walked into the basement. I had just come back from a job and I was bushed. I inserted the occupied trap and easily flushed it out. I gotta say, my stepdad is a genius. Well, Dr. Stantz too, of course.

I heard a crash in the closet and whirled around. The door opened, and Eddie came stumbling out, carrying some strange-looking machine.

"Hey, Eddie," I said.

He jumped and craned his head around to face me. "Oh. Alice, it's you. I was afraid it was...well, anyways, what's up?" he asked nervously.

"Not much," I said calmly. I studied the odd device he was toting. "What's that?"

"What's what?" Eddie asked. Then he glanced at his mysterious burden. "Oh, this! This is nothing. Just an old slime blower I thought I'd fix up. You know, in case we ever needed it for any reason."

"Slime blower?" I asked. "What's that?"

"Well, back '89," Eddie began to explain, "there was this evil painting that the Ghostbusters had to battle. And all the negative energy from the city had generated this slime that made people act mean. So my dad and Dr. Spengler figured out a way to reverse the charge to where it was _positive_ plasm, not negative. And then they used it to animate the Statue of Liberty and defeated the evil painting."

I was at loss for words for a second. I finally just said "Okay," and left the room.

I walked upstairs into the front hall. "Hey Sally," I called to the secretary, writing at her desk.

She smiled back. "Hi, Alice."

I took off my uniform and utility belt and hung them in my locker. I was about to go up to the kitchen on the third floor, but then I paused. "Sally? Have you seen Graham or Dexter lately?"

Sally chuckled. "I would've thought Dexter having an unexplained absence would make you happy."

I laughed. "You'd think so, wouldn't you? I'm sure they're just messing around somewhere."

"Probably nothing to worry about," agreed Sally.

"Right. Thanks," I said as I headed up the stairs again.

Jeremy looked up from the couch as I came in. "Hey."

"Hey." Then I rubbed at the pain in the back of my neck and groaned.

"What is it?" said Jeremy, concerned.

"It's nothing," I replied. "Just a crick."

Jeremy smiled warmly and patted the spot on the couch beside him. "Sit down."

I did so, and Jeremy placed his fingers right on the achy point and started to rub. "Ooh," I moaned as I felt the muscle start to relieve. "That's good."

"Not a problem," said Jeremy. I heard the smile in his voice. "You've been working hard lately."

"I'm so tired," I admitted. "We ought to think about hiring more help around here."

"Don't worry," said Jeremy. "Soon I'll be back on my feet and everything will be back to normal around here."

"What is normal?" I asked jokingly.

Jeremy laughed. I relaxed as my eyes drifted lazily around the room...and lighted on the neuron splitter. I noticed that the button labeled "6" was lit up. I sat straight up to make sure that I wasn't imagining things. Sure enough, the button was indeed glowing. Someone had pressed it.

"Alice?" said Jeremy as I hopped up off the couch and strode over to the keypad, examining it. "What's up?"

I looked from the luminescent six to him. "I think I know where Graham is."

Jeremy cocked his head to the side. "What?"

"Look," I said, pointing to the button. "This button only lights up when someone's pressed it, gone into the neuron splitter..." I gulped. "...and hasn't come back out."

Jeremy stood up, his bandaged leg still propped on the couch. "You mean to say that Graham's..." Jeremy pointed to the splitter. "...in there?"

I nodded. "And if I'm correct, Dexter's probably with him. We have to rescue them before it's too late."

"Too late? What do you mean?"

"I mean that if we don't get them, something else could get them first."

Jeremy shuddered. "Yeah, we definitely need to get them out of there."

I nodded and started mentally making a plan. "Okay, so I'll go into the splitter and try to find them while you stay here and make sure that the portal doesn't close." I hit the six button and the splitter started up, the inside swirling with color.

"Wait a sec," said Jeremy, limping over to me. "You can't possibly think that I'm gonna let you go in there alone."

"Jeremy, you can't come. Your leg is messed up," I said, gesturing to it. "It'll be fine. I'll just get in, get the guys, and get out. How hard could it be?"

"No way," Jeremy crossed his arms over his chest stubbornly. "I'm coming with you and that's that."

"I'll be okay on my own-" I objected.

"Alice, you could get hurt. I've got to protect you."

"No, Jeremy, I've got to do this by myself! You have to stay here!" I protested, beginning to get a little agitated.

"No I don't," Jeremy retorted, sounded a little angry himself. "I'm going with you into that portal. End of discussion."

"I can't let you risk further injury, you know what the doctor said-"

"Screw what the doctor said! I love you and I'm going with you and that's all there is to it!"

I froze, all irritation fading away. "Wait," I breathed. "What did you just say?"

Jeremy's cheeks turned red, now looking more bashful than staid. "I said...uh...that I...uh...I love you."

My heart rate picked up a little...a lot. "You do?" I asked, unable to pull my voice out of a hoarse whisper.

Jeremy nodded slowly and reverently.

I gulped, my heart going a hundred miles an hour. I slowly stretched up toward his crimson face and kissed him. "Together?" I whispered.

He nodded. "Together."

I took his hand in mine, then turned toward the splitter's rainbow vortex. And with that, the two of us walked into the swirl of color to save our friends.

* * *

**Eddie**

I checked the meter on the side of the slime blower's tank. Good, it was over half full. And judging from the size of the tanks, that was a lot. Now all I needed to do was check the slime's polarity and potency. I cautiously sprayed my hand with a tiny sample. I immediately felt happier, braver. That was good. I was going to need all the courage I could get to do what I was about to do.

* * *

**What's going to happen next? Will Alice and Jeremy find Graham and Dexter? Why does Eddie have the slime blower? And WHAT is up with Jennifer? Is anybody even reading this crappy fanfiction? All these questions and more will be answered on the next exciting installment of...GB+Me: Next Generation!**

**Yeah, that was pretty cheesy. Review!**


	9. The Flame Climbs Higher

**Jeremy**

Going into a cross dimensional portal is definitely an experience worth trying. I gotta say, I wasn't completely sure what it would be like, but this definitely wasn't it.

Once we had walked through the door, the rainbow swirl became a chamber, a tunnel of sorts, still alight with color. At the end of the passageway, I could see a bright light emitting from the end. Kind of like when you die, except the chamber wasn't dark. The only sound was a quiet whirring.

As we stepped into the multi colored tunnel, my foot fell through the air. At first, I thought I was going to fall to my death, but surprisingly, I didn't. My foot, along with the rest of my body, just hung there, suspended in midair.

"No way," I whispered to myself. "Zero gravity." I turned my head to look at Alice, who was still clutching my hand. She too was floating, without any support whatsoever. She looked up at me, her dark green eyes wide in amazement. I guess she hadn't been expecting that either.

I also noticed that we were being pulled forward, toward the bright end of the chamber. "Alice?" I called over the whirring noise. "Where are we?"

Alice pushed her glasses up her nose. "I believe we're in some sort of wormhole-no, scratch that. We're in a controlled, artificial, interdimensional cross rip."

I stared at her for a moment. "Uh, I think 'wormhole' will work fine."

"Actually, there's quite a difference between a wormhole and a cross rip-" Alice began to explain.

"Why don't you tell me later?" I asked, pointing to the brightness ahead, which was approaching faster and faster. "It looks like we're about to take a little trip."

Alice looked at the end of the tunnel and nodded. "I think you're right."

As the two of us reached the brightness, we had to shield our eyes from the bright light. I felt my body get dragged into the center of the brightness, as if it were a black hole, except that it was white light. I felt a cold shiver pass through me and I knew we were entering the sixth dimension.

Then my body slammed into solid ground.

"Uh!" I groaned as I opened my eyes and got to my feet. "Rough landing." Then I blinked and viewed the landscape around me. "Holy crap!" I exclaimed in amazement.

"My sentiments exactly," said Alice from somewhere next to me.

It was nothing like I'd imagined. I guess I'd been expecting a city in the clouds, you know, how they always depict Heaven in the cartoons. But this looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. The pink and blue mottled sky seemed to stretch on forever, and the ground was broken up into little islands floating in space. The islands themselves seemed to be big dirt clots, like the one we were standing on. I looked at Alice quizzically. "Uh...are you sure we're in the right place?"

Alice looked around too and nodded. "Yes. And there's something you need to understand, Jeremy. You and I are technically dead right now."

"Uh...what?"

"This is the sixth dimension," Alice explained. "It's the home world for metaphysical beings. Therefore, no physical organisms can exist here. When we were teleported here, our mortality was stripped from us so we temporarily dwell here."

I stared at my hand, expecting it to be transparent. It didn't look see through. "Weird."

"We need to find the boys as soon as possible," said Alice. "The portal will only stay open one hour. We have to back before then."

I gulped. "Yeah, okay. We need to get out of here ASAP."

"Let's just find Graham and Dexter and get out of here," she said. She looked around again. "I'm not sure how we're going to, though. This plane is as big as the universe itself."

Suddenly, in the distance, I heard a high-pitched, girly shriek that sounded pretty familiar. Alice and I glanced at each other. I pointed toward the scream. "I'm gonna guess they're in that direction."

* * *

**Eddie**

With the slime blower strapped to my back, I cautiously crept up the stairs of the basement. I peeked my head out to see if Sally was at her desk. Weird, she wasn't there.

_She must be upstairs,_ I thought to myself.

So I tiptoed up the stairs and into the kitchen. There she was, by the neuron splitter. She was bent down, studying the keypad. The neuron splitter itself was on and spinning. Someone must have gone into it, and I suspected that someone was Alice and Jeremy.

Sally reached out her hand, about to push a button to lock them in. I whipped out the slime cannon attachment and yelled, "Hold it right there!"

Sally whirled around, wide-eyed, "Eddie! You're so quiet; I didn't hear you come in!"

"What were you doing with the neuron splitter?" I demanded.

"Well I just noticed that someone left it on and I was just going to turn if off. Conserving energy is very important to the environment, you know."

"Yeah right," I pointed my cannon at her threateningly. "Where are Alice and Jeremy?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea," said Sally innocently.

"You were about to turn off the splitter because you knew they were in there and you wanted to shut them in," I accused. "Is that where Graham and Dexter are too?"

Sally blinked. "Eddie...I'm hurt. You're acting like I'm an evil demon."

"Well, you _did_ possess someone. That makes you a demon, and most demons are evil," I reasoned.

"That's a horrible stereotype!" Sally pouted. "Everybody thinks just because you possess someone makes you evil."

"Well don't worry," I said, preparing to pull the lever on my cannon. "I'll make sure you never possess anyone ever again."

Then I fired.

The stream of slime splattered with Sally with goo. She shrieked and sank to the ground, and a large blue wraith rose up out of her. It hovered above Sally's unconscious body, glaring at me. "_You will regret that, Edwin Stantz,_" It hissed.

I gulped. I was in trouble now.

So I did what any typical, red-blooded, American boy would do. I screamed and ran out of the room.

* * *

**J****eremy**

"So how do we maneuver in this place?" I asked, staring apprehensively at the space between our little dirt patch and the nearest one. It had to be at least eight feet. There would be no possible way to jump it.

Alice stared at me like I was the stupidest person she'd ever met. "You've _got_ to be kidding me."

"What?" I asked defensively.

Alice rolled her eyes in exasperation. "We're ghosts, remember? We _float_."

"Oh." Yeah, I probably should've figured that out. "Well how do we do that, Miss Smarty Pants."

"Observe." Alice closed her eyes momentarily and suddenly, her body rose in the air a couple of inches. Alice gave me a self satisfied look. "Now you try. Just imagine that you're weightless."

"Fine," I snapped. I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate. I imagined that I was as light as a feather. Suddenly I felt my feet leave the ground. I opened my eyes and looked down. Sure enough, I was floating. "Huh. That was easy," I muttered. I looked up at Alice. "Okay. Now what?"

"Follow me," said Alice simply. She glided through the air past me and toward the place where the scream had come from. I shrugged and flew after her.

We'd been flying for awhile when I finally spoke up, a question on my mind. "So...how come this place looks like this? I mean, isn't this technically Hell? Should there be like, you know, fire and stuff?"

"I'm not sure if we should bring religion into this," said Alice nervously. "I mean...everyone has their own interpretation of the next life. This," she waved her hand at the landscape around us, "is the neuron splitter's view. It's a machine, not a person. It doesn't have a soul, so it sees the Underworld for how it truly is. When we die for real, it may look completely different."

"So this is what it really looks like?"

Alice nodded. "I guess so."

I whistled, looking around. "Weird."

"Look!" Alice suddenly pointed to something ahead of us. I turned my head slowly and saw what she was pointing to.

"We're too late," Alice whispered.

Directly in front of us was another dirt clot, and Graham and Dexter were standing on it. They looked scared for their lives, and they had good reason to. Because they weren't completely alone.

Standing right next to them was Armageddon.


	10. Exorcised

**Alice**

Jeremy and just stood (Well, floated. You know what I mean!) there, dumbstruck. Armageddon was _here_. And worse, he had our friends!

"Alice," hissed Jeremy. "You told me we vanquished that guy!"

"Well, not exactly vanquished," I whispered back. "We transported him back to his home dimension. That's _this_ dimension."

"Now she tells me," groaned Jeremy, smacking his palm against his forehead.

"Well you're the one who insisted on coming!" I retorted.

"Yeah and I'm glad I did. That thing might've gotten you if I hadn't," Jeremy whispered fiercely.

Even though we were less than fifty feet from the worst imaginable demon alive, I smiled inwardly at Jeremy's defensiveness over me. He cared about me. He really cared about me!

"So what do we do?" Jeremy muttered, his wary gaze never leaving Armageddon.

I felt like smacking myself in the face. "I'm such an idiot. I should've thought to bring my Ecto-Porter. I can't believe I didn't think to bring a means of defense!"

"What good would that have done?" Jeremy asked confusedly. "If this is his home dimension, wouldn't he have just come right back here?"

"Well, yes, it's true that the teleportation feature in our guns would have been void in a place like this. But the guns also put ghosts into a dormant state. That would've been very helpful in this situation."

"Okay...so our plan is?" Jeremy asked again.

I tapped my chin, deep in thought. "Well, if you could cause a diversion and distract the entity, I could grab Graham and Dexter and fly with them back to the portal."

Jeremy stared at me as if I was nuts or something. "Yeah, okay, that's sounds like a good plan. Just one problem...how, exactly, did you plan on me getting away from Gedd?"

"Oh." I blinked, realizing the flaw in my plan. "Good point."

"Look, I've got a better idea," said Jeremy, speaking slowly, as if I was physically unable to understand normal English. "Why don't we just go back to the firehouse, grab our guns, and come back to save the guys?"

"Uh...yeah. You're right." I nodded, then the two of us turned around, ready to return to the firehouse. But there was a slight problem.

The whole time we'd been talking, apparently, a giant terror dog had been standing behind us, with glowing blood red eyes and sharp fangs. It stared at the two of us, daring us to make a move.

"We're dead," squeaked Jeremy.

* * *

**Eddie**  
As I raced down the stairs, huffing and puffing, only one thought was going through my oxygen-deprived mind: _Gotta get the pack!_

As I rushed into the front hall, I heard a squeaky little voice say: "Eddie? What is this thing?"

I looked around wildly to see little Kendra Zeddemore standing by the Ectomobile, with a proton pack set on the ground next to her. She was holding the neutrona wand and looking at me questioningly.

"Kendra!" I shouted. "You gotta get out of here! There's a-"

"_Edwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!"_ I whirled around to face the hideous wail. The blue spirit that had been possessing Sally had caught up to me.

Kendra shrieked, staring wide eyed at the demon. "Ghost!" she yelped. She raised the wand and aimed it at Sally's wraith. "How do you work this thi-" Her tiny little hand reached the ignition switch on the apparatus and the wand blasted with energy. "Oh," Kendra said, gazing at the orange and blue beam. "_That's_ how you do it."

"Keep firing at it, Kendra!" I cried. Was I crazy or something, letting a twelve year old, hardly any bigger than the pack herself (okay, not really, but she was a really small girl), attempt to operate an unlicensed nuclear accelerator?

I guess I was.

Kendra's stream lassoed the demon in midair. "You got her! You got her!" I shouted excitedly. I whipped my head around and spotted a trap lying on a table. I dashed over and grabbed the thing.

"ED-DEE!" cried Kendra desperately, struggling to keep her hold on the ghost. I had to admit, she was doing very well, considering she had never been shown how to use the pack. "What do I do now?"

"Keep holding it, Ken!" I ran back over and pushed the trap under the ghost. "Okay, are you ready! Don't look into the trap!" I yelled as I stamped on the pedal.

The trap creaked open, emitting a bright ray of light. The ghost was sucked in. "_Eddie..._" I heard it cry pitifully as just the doors of the trap shut.

Kendra let out a breath of relief as she lowered her wand. "Did I just...did we...is it gone?" she asked in wonder.

I stared somberly at the trap. For a second, that moan had sounded almost human...almost like Sally. "Yeah," I finally said. "It's gone."

"Wow..." said Kendra in amazement. "I just caught a ghost!"

I tore my eyes away from the trap. God, it was...it was too painful to think about.

"Eddie?" said Kendra. "Where's my brother?"

I blinked, suddenly remembering that Graham, Alice, Jeremy, and Dexter were still in the splitter! "Oh crap!" I spat, taking off for the stairs. "I gotta go save them!"

"Wait!" yelped Kendra, following after me. "Let me help!"

"No, Ken, you have to stay here. It's too dangerous!"

Kendra gave me an icy stare. "If my dopey big brother's in trouble, then I'm gonna save him. No ifs, ands, or buts!"

I stared at her for a second. For one thing, the kid was way too young to be gallivanting off into the sixth dimension. Second, Graham would kill me! Then again, she had caught that _Class Six_ with little assistance or guidance from me...

I sighed. "Alright. You can come along."

* * *

**This chapter was a little shorter than usual...sorry.**


	11. Useless Efforts

**Sorry I haven't updated lately. I've had writer's block big time! Well, here it is.**

* * *

**Alice**

The terror dog, the collar of our shirts clutched in his mouth, set us down beside Graham and Jeremy, and before Armageddon. "Hey, man, watch the dog drool," whined Jeremy, tugging at the collar of his shirt. "This shirt is dry clean only!"

"Here are the children, my master," the dog barked to Armageddon, his head bowed respectfully.

At that moment, a low hissing came from the demon. Amazingly, the hissing came out as words. As clear as a bell, I heard Armageddon say, "You have done well, my servant."

I felt Jeremy nudge me with his elbow. "Psst, Alice. How come we can understand him this time? Dr. Spengler said this guy speaks Sanskrit."

"That's just what I was wondering," I muttered back. How come Armageddon was speaking English this time?

"You little fools," the hooded figure hissed. I couldn't help but notice how large he was in person up close. "Did you really think you could enter my domain without my knowledge? I am the ruler of this realm!"

"I suppose you're not gonna let us go then, huh?" asked Jeremy.

"Silence!" rasped Armageddon. "You have made a mockery of me. But I shall now have my revenge. The four of you shall be held in captivity for all eternity."

"Can we at least have a TV in our cell?" Jeremy continued to make flippant remarks.

"Quiet!" Armageddon began to pace, and mutter to himself. The terror dog was watching us with a menacing glare. The four of us looked at each other, too scared to speak.

Finally, I spoke up. "Graham. How did you end up here?"

"Well first Bozo here turned on the machine," said Graham, jerking a thumb in Dexter's direction. "Then, the cousin of Dogzilla over there chased us in. And before we could get back through the portal, Gedd ambushed us!"

"There was another terror dog?" Jeremy asked incredulously.

"Yeah, and I think it was the same one that busted your leg," Graham replied.

"Have you guys seen that thing before?" Dexter gasped, throwing a nervous glance at Armageddon. "He is one scary dude. Is he a dementor or something?"

"No, he's the angel of death...sort of," I corrected.

"Look, Gedd told us the whole story," Graham said. "He's been watching us and he wants revenge for sending him here."

"Watching us? How?" I asked.

"It's that girl, Sally. She's really an agent of Armageddon!"

I gasped. "Oh my God! And we left Eddie all alone with her!"

"Al, I think Eddie's a lot safer than we are right now," Jeremy pointed out.

"But how come we can understand him?" I wondered out loud.

There was a stumped silence. Suddenly, Jeremy spoke up. "Hey, wait! Maybe-no, that's dumb."

"What?" I asked.

"Well, I just thought of something, but it's probably wrong. I was just thinking that if we're ghosts right now, maybe that's why we can understand Gedd. But that's a pretty stupid idea, huh?"

I thought for a second. "No, it's not dumb...not dumb at all...in fact, I think you might be onto something."

Jeremy looked astounded. "Wait. You mean I actually got it? You wouldn't be yanking my chain right now, would ya?"

I ignored that. "Alright, does someone have a watch?"

"Yeah, it's," Graham looked at his wrist. "4:47. You got an appointment or something?"

I ignored that too and made some mental calculations. "Alright, and we opened the portal at 4:09. We've been here...thirty eight minutes. So we've got...twenty two minutes to get out here before the portal closes."

"Yeah, I don't think we're gonna make it," said Jeremy, eyeing the terror dog, who was suspiciously watching us.

"We have to. Otherwise we'll be trapped here forever!" I said anxiously.

"Don't count on that!" A voice yelled out.

Our heads whipped around to see Eddie zooming toward us, followed closely by Graham's little sister Kendra.

"The cavalry has arrived!" sighed Jeremy with relief.

"Seize them!" Armageddon shrieked.

The terror dog started barking and took off for the two. "Scatter!" Eddie shouted at Kendra. The two of them took off in opposite directions, and the terror dog was forced to pick one to chase-and he chose Kendra.

"Ah!" squealed the girl as the dog pursued her. "Help me!"

"No!" yelled Graham, enraged. "Not my sister!"

His hand flew to his utility belt and he whipped out his Ecto-Porter.

"You had that this whole time?" Jeremy exclaimed incredulously. "And you didn't use it?"

"I forgot!" Graham called apologetically as he took aim and fired at the terror dog. With a last pitiful whine, the terror dog dropped off to sleep.

"NO!" howled Armageddon. "You will regret that!"

"I don't think so!" Graham replied, turning his gun on the demon. "You don't scare me! I don't think you're all that powerful! You're just a weak little ghost who gets his minions to do all his dirty work for him! You tried to hurt my baby sister...now have some of this!"

Graham shot his gun, and a green blast of energy hit Armageddon and passed right through him, leaving a big gaping hole in his torso. Slowly, the hole healed itself.

Graham stared at the device in his hand confusedly. "What the?"

"Weak, am I?" rasped Armageddon "Let me show you just how weak I am!"

He raised his hand and emitted a stream of his own white-yellow energy, which hit Graham at full force. Graham went flying backward. He landed with a thud on the ground beside us. "Ow," he groaned.

"No!" shrieked Kendra. She stared angrily at Armageddon. "You hurt my brother!" She darted straight at Armageddon and started kicking him in the shin with her tiny foot. "You're a meanie! You big bully!"

Armageddon let out a howl of pain as he-amazingly-grabbed at his leg, as if Kendra had actually hurt him.

I gasped. "That's it!"

"What's it?" Jeremy asked me.

"We're in a state of metaphysical matter, right?" I said quickly.

"Yeah. So?" said Eddie. At some point he had landed beside me and I hadn't noticed in all the excitement.

"So, that means we're at the same ionic level as Armageddon! We can physically touch him!" I exclaimed and took off running at Armageddon. I started throwing punches wildly.

The boys stared at Kendra and I trying to beat up Armageddon. "Huh," said Eddie. "Crude...but effective. Yaaaaaaaaaaah!" Eddie took off at a run too and joined us in our efforts to pulverize the monster. Jeremy and Graham looked at each other, shrugged, and joined in too.

"Take that! And that!" I shouted as my fists swung.

"You're going down, dirtbag!" Jeremy yelled.

"_ENOUGH_!" Armageddon screeched. A blast of energy essued from him and and all of us were thrown backward by the impact.

Graham, who had been abused for the second time now, moaned. "That was really _stupid_."

Armageddon stared at each one of us, and I felt a cold chill run through me. "You children will all die!" he hissed.

He shot out a beam of energy, this time blue, and hit Jeremy. "Ah!" He groaned in agony as he clutched his head and sank to the ground. "Make...it...stop!"

"What is he doing to him?" I cried, my voice shrill.

"It looks like he's causing Jeremy some sort of mental pain!" Eddie replied, watching Jeremy, horrified.

"We have to do something!" I exclaimed. I looked around wildly. What could I do? I spotted Graham's abandoned Ecto-Porter on the ground and snatched it up. I stared at it momentarily, wondering what I could possibly do with it to save my Jeremy? It had already been proven useless...then I remembered something. "Of course!" I gasped, smacking myself in the forehead. "How could I have forgotten?"


	12. Epilogue

**Alice**

Two years ago, Eddie and I had invented the Ecto-Porter. Well, okay, Eddie had already done most of the work, I only helped a little. But we couldn't take full credit, as we had been working off of Egon and Dr. Stantz's designs. But we had added an emergency feature of our own: D Mode.

The Ecto-Porter was actually an adjustable device. It had two different settings, S and D. S Mode was the normal default setting that Eddie and I had preset the guns to. "S" stood for Send, or Specter. It was for the ordinary ghost handling procedure. Not that we'd meant for the Ecto-Porters to take the place of the proton packs, trap, and the containment unit. We had merely invented it in the event of a primal force, such as Armageddon. The Ecto-Porter wasn't efficient as the unit (unless of course, the grid was shut down), but it worked better on bigger entities which rarely escaped the ghost dimension.

But there was another secret setting. Jeremy, Graham, nor Dexter knew of it. Only Eddie and I did, and we'd developed it only in the event of an emergency. D Mode stood for Destroy. It could make an apparition cease to exist whatsoever. But there was a risk to using the D setting. It generated a beam so powerful that the Ecto-Porter would fizzle out and be a useless piece of equipment. However, the price of an Ecto-Porter was more than enough to pay for Jeremy's life.

So without another moment's hesitation, I opened the secret panel on the side of the gun. Behind it was a small red button labeled **D**. I gulped and pressed it. Then I yelled, "Everyone get out of the way!"

All of the guys scrambled behind me. I raised my arms, took aim at the large shrouded ghost, tightly shut my eyes, and squeezed the trigger.

The end of the gun emitted a large red beam, so powerful that I (and everyone behind me) was knocked off their feet by the impact. The red beam shot out hit Armageddon like a fist, forcing him backward. He wailed in pain as the energy touched him. The beam sprouted root hairs and transformed into a red glowing net, enveloping him inside.

"_NOOOOOO!_" shrieked Armageddon as, with one final crimson glow, he and the net disappeared. There was a final flash of light and a boom. Then, it was over.

For a long time, I just stood there in stunned silence, gawking at the place where the spirit had been, not believing that I had actually done it. Finally, a little voice spoke up behind me. "Is he gone?"

I slowly turned around to find Kendra Zeddemore staring up at me earnestly with her gigantic brown eyes. I smiled and let out a breath I hadn't been aware I was holding. "Yes, Kendra. It's over."

She grinned and let out a whoop. "We did it!"

"Of course we did!" exclaimed Eddie giddily. "We're the Next Generation Ghostbusters! We can do anything!" He turned to me and said, "I can't believe I forgot about the D setting on the Ecto-Porter."

"Yeah, well, I guess this gun's useless," I replied, looking at the now crackling and steaming weapon in my hand. "Sorry, Graham."

"That's alright," said Graham. "I'd give up anything for Jeremy."

I gasped. "Jeremy!" I tossed the broken gun over my shoulder and knelt down on the ground next to Jeremy's body. He was just lying there. He wasn't moving or anything. Was he?...Could he possibly be?...No. He couldn't be. "Please don't leave me," I whispered.

A groaned issued from Jeremy's throat. I sighed with relief. "Oh thank God! He's alive!"

"Yeah, but is his brain fried?" Eddie asked. Man, he is just so positive.

"Jeremy? Jeremy, please say something," I said frantically, taking his hand. "Please be alright."

Jeremy's head slightly rolled and his eyes popped open, revealing his gorgeous sea blue eyes. He blinked several times and his eyes focused on me. "Are we dead?" he asked, slightly dazed.

I let out a relieved laugh. "No, we're not dead. We're just fine!"

He smiled a little as his other hand joined the two that were already together. "That's good. For a second, I thought I'd died and you were an angel come to take me to Heaven."

I rolled my eyes in mock exasperation and scoffed. "How many girls did that line work on, Venkman?"

He grinned full on and brushed some hair that had fallen out of my ponytail out of my face. "Just one so far."

I smiled too and gazed into those crystal clear eyes of his. I don't mean to sound like some lovesick, hormone-driven, teenage girl, but I just adore his eyes. They're so beautiful.

The spell was broken as I heard Eddie behind me clear his throat and say, "Uh, guys? Don't mean to break up the moment, but the clock's tickin' and we kinda need to get out of here...like now."

"Right!" I said, jumping up. "We've got to get back to the third dimension before the portal closes. Come on, everyone!"

* * *

"There it is, guys! Up ahead!" Jeremy shouted, pointing at the technicolor spiral hovering in midair.

"Hurry, guys!" Eddie called, looking at his watch. "It's going to close any second!"

"It is closing!" Kendra gasped.

Sure enough, the portal was indeed starting to shrink. "Fly fast!" I cried.

Jeremy, the fastest flyer, zipped through first, followed by Eddie, then Graham with Kendra under the crook of his arm. Dexter went in next, and finally I managed to scooch in just as the portal was closing up.

Then we went back through the cross dimensional tunnel and through the portal at the other and came tumbling out back into the kitchen of our firehouse. "Yes!" exclaimed Eddie, jumping up and pumping his fist into the air. "We did it!"

"Straight up!" Jeremy laughed, then he grimaced as he clenched his leg. "Ow."

"What is it?" I asked, worried, as I crawled over to him.

"Aw, it's just this stupid leg," said Jeremy, waving me down. "I don't suppose you have some gizmo that could fix this, do?"

I laughed. "Sorry, not yet." Then I paused, thinking about something. "Um, Jeremy? Remember that thing you said before?"

Jeremy froze, his cheeks turning red. "Uh...yeah. Yeah, I do."

"Well...did you...mean it?" I asked tentatively. My heart was racing a hundred miles an hour.

Jeremy stared at me for a second, then slowly nodded. "Yeah. I did."

I felt a slow silly grin spreading across my face. "That's good. Because I...I do, too."

Jeremy grinned as he leaned in and kissed me, long and steady.

"Eddie," said Graham, turning to him, a stern expression on his face. "What the hell were you thinking? Bringing Kendra into a place like that? You crazy or something, man?"

"I'm sorry, G-man, but she made me bring her," Eddie said quickly. "And you should have seen her back there with the proton pack. She was a nat-"

"You let her have a proton pack?" Graham exclaimed.

Eddie clapped his hand to his forehead. "Look, dude, the point is, she's okay. And, she's also really good at catching ghosts. Took to it like a duck to water. She saved me back there. She really wants to be a Ghostbuster. I say we should let her."

"Well...I don't know," said Graham slowly.

"We could use the extra help, Graham," I pointed out.

"Please, Grammy?" Kendra pleaded, giving her older brother a puppy dog face.

Graham sighed. "Alright. You can be a Ghostbuster...but you better be careful!"

"Yahoo!" screeched Kendra, jumping for joy.

Suddenly, I heard a soft moan from next to the splitter. Everybody looked over to see that it was...Sally lying unconscious in a puddle of pink goo?

"Sally!" Eddie exclaimed, rushing over to her. He helped her sit up. "Oh gosh, are you okay?"

"Uh...I think so..." said Sally unsurely. She looked up at Eddie confusedly. "Where am I?...And who are you?"

"Oh," said Eddie, looking slightly crestfallen. "You don't remember?"

"The last thing I remember was picketing at my "Save the Dolphins" protest," Sally replied.

"Why am I not surprised?" Jeremy whispered to me.

"You've had a violent, prolonged transformative episode," Eddie explained. "Do you feel alright, Miss Eckert?"

"Groovy," Sally said, a little dazedly. "Um, how do you know my name?"

"It's a long story," said Eddie. "I'm Eddie Stantz."

Sally smiled at him warmly. "Nice to meet you."

* * *

It was a few hours later. Sally was going to be alright. Apparently, Eddie and Kendra had been able to exorcise the demon out of her. Now, Eddie was taking Sally to a cafe to talk things over. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I think Sally had a little thing for him.

Graham, Kendra, and Jeremy had gone to the Zeddemore's for dinner. Mrs. Zeddemore sure can cook. They had invited me along, but I had politely said no. I had decided to go home to Mom and Egon and have dinner with them for once.

I had been coming down the stairs when suddenly, the door opened and in came Mom and Egon. "Hey," I said, a little surprised. "I was just about to come home. What are you guys doing here?"

"Alice, we need to talk about something," said Mom gravely.

That's when I saw it. The rings under their eyes, as if they hadn't slept in a while. Plus Mom's eyelids were red and puffy, like she'd been crying. But mostly, I saw the haunted look in their eyes. They were scared.

"What is it, Mom?" I asked nervously.

Mom looked up at Egon, then looked back at me. She took a deep breath and uttered three words that would change our lives forever:

"Alice, I'm pregnant."

I was shocked. I couldn't even say anything at first. I just stared at the two of them in disbelief.

Mom was pregnant. Mom, a forty six year old woman, was going to have a baby. I couldn't even wrap my mind around it.

Finally I knew I had to say something. "I think we need to have a family conference...now."

**To be continued...**

* * *

**Sorry, but it's not over yet! It might be a while before I publish the new story. I still have to work out the plot and stuff. And if anyone's confused as to why it's such a big deal that Jennifer's having a baby, well, apparently when you're over thirty five, there's an increased chance that the baby will be...er...gosh, I'm trying to be PC here, uh...intellectually challenged. Yeah, I'm gonna go now.**


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